.0^^ 



-f. ^^■v^'^^'^- y 



■^' 









o. 









V 



•4 




^^^ V^ 






O, 






s^ ,'^ 






,i-' 



Si O 






0, .-*' V^ 














v>o 

























_ ^ 



<•. 



rV .^ v<!o^ '^ . 'P Vj"^ O ..-CNN 












^^ c 



'^.'^/Vft 



•O. ,.0- s'7^*-, >3?<^ A^ c" ■■■♦^ -O. 



.^0• 









""■ Xv^ 



'^ 



v^- 



H -f 









,-^ 









.0' V 






.^ "^ ^^Ji'7^ 



^0^^ 



oT^ X/ 










RECONSTKUCTION, 



A. T. Stone to Gov. E. J. Oglesby, of Illinois. 



Eis Excelle7icy, R. .1. Oglesby, 

Governor of Illinois : 

^^ 

SiK, — It is one of tbe cTierislied principles of our repub- 
lican institutions, that however humble the individual, he 
is guaranteed the largest privilege in discussing questions 
of public policy, though of the gravest importance, And 
perhaps it may more correctly be said of the American than 
of any other people, that literature shapes their legislation. 
Without claiming in any manner to direct this motive 
power, I propose briefly to discuss, as a private citizen, a 
question now, for the first time, properly presented to the 
American people. And in giving publicity to my opinions, 
I know of no more appropriate channel through which to 
reach that people with whom it was my privilege ' -me 
somewhat identified during the late campaigr -^. oO ad- 
dress myself to him whom their almost unanimous voice has 
wisely elevated to so responsible a station. In doing so, I am 
proud to know that I am addressing one whose loyal utter- 
ances, no less than whose heroic deeds in the field, have for 
ever endeared him to the hearts of a brave and generous 
people. Believing the sentiments herein advocated accord, 
also, in the main, with those entertained by yourself, it is 
with some encouragement that I present them for publio 
consideration. 

The authority of the United States Government is so far 
restored in the State of Louisiana that Senators and Kepre- 
sentatives claiming to have been duly elected, and to repre- 



sent the people of that State, have presented themselves at 
Washington, and demand their respective places on the 
floors of Congress. Shall they be admitted? This ques- 
tion is perhaps the most important that either House of 
Congress has yet been called upon to decide. It is a ques- 
tion, too, from which there is no appeal, as each House is 
alone empowered to judge of the qualifications of its mem- 
bers. It is a question, also, upon the decision of which may 
necessarily rest the future policy of this Government towards 
the belligerent States — possibly the very existence of the 
Government itself. 

Hitherto the question of Eeconstruction or Reorganization 
has been one which the American people have instinctively 
refused to agitate. During the late campaign in Illinois, 
you are Avell aware that the question of reorganization was 
the most unpopular that could well be brought before the 
public. Loyal people* eiyery where wisely manifested a desire 
to contribute rather to the destruction of the rebel armies 
themselves, than to the discussion of how we shall receive 
the rebels after their military power has been destroyed. 
They chose rather to combat with the iron implements of 
war, that accursed institution that has arisen up against 
our Government and our liberties, than to trouble them- 
selves as to what disposition shall be made of the emanci- 
pated slave, or how large a share of our sympathies is due 
to those who have so long stood up, an armed foe, in the 
path of our prosperity and our happiness. 

But that great moral battle, then being waged throughout 
the length and breadth of the land, has been fought and 
won ; our gallant armies have been extraordinarily trium- 
phant in the field ; the giant Rebellion is fast tottering to its 
grave, and, disenthralled by our patriot army, a noble State, 
regenerated and redeemed, presents herself at the Capitol 
and asks to resume her legal connection with the General 
Government. 

This great question now properly comes Before the Ameri- 
can people in a shape both tangible and practicable. And 
though it is to be decided by Congress alone, yet it emi- 
nently deserves the consideration of every statesman and 
patriot in the land. It is a question, too, regarding which 
I imagine Congress can better subserve the public interest 
by refusing to legislate at all, than by any possible exercise 
of its legislative powers- 



That Congress can enact such a law as will render the 
admission of the Louisiana Delegation impossible, I presume 
no one will undertake to deny. That the people will peace- 
ably acquiesce in such a law is at least probable. But that 
such a law can possibly be so shaped as not to conflict with 
the Constitution of the United States, I very much question. 

It may be deemed useless, if not unwise, at least for the 
present, to discuss that which can alone be decided by the 
committees on elections, to which the whole matter is now 
referred. But whatever else the facts now being received 
by the committees may develope, it is certain that Louisiana 
has sent this Delegation to Washington duly elected by a 
majority of the legal voters of the State. These facts will 
go to the world. If the people of Louisiana have at last 
spoken, unawed by military power, which are facts unde- 
niable, and, thus acting according to law, have elected dele- 
gates to Congress, we must either receive them, or we vir- 
tually say to the world, Louisiana had a constitutional right 
to secede, and did secede ; or we say, Louisiana freely, fully 
and deliberately refuses to return to her allegiance. In 
either case we proclaim that we have conquered, subjugated 
the^jeo/:'^ of Louisiana, which is not only wickedly false, but 
perniciously unjust to her, as well as to the American people. 
For I deny, most emphatically, that the people of Louisiana 
ever gave their consent to such separation. Any one ac- 
quainted with the facts at the time knows, (and perhaps no 
one knows better than myself,) that, laying all legal ques- 
tions aside, the State of Louisiana never even so much as 
passed the ordinance of secession by the consent of her peo- 
ple ; but, on the contrary, that the people, against the will 
of a vast majority of the people, were forced to occupy a 
belligerent position againt a Government that had never 
injured them. The vote polled at the election by which 
delegates were sent to the convention which passed the ordi- 
nance of secession, showed that much less than half the legal 
voters in the State had exercised that important privilege. 
The elections were frauds, for they were held not only after 
her forts and arsenals had been seized by the rebels, but 
under a military reign of terror already so completely inau- 
gurated that in many places Union men were either deterred 
from attending the polls or forced to tacitly consent to a 
measure they knew was not only ruinous to themselves, but 
most villainously unjust to the Government under whose gen- 



4 

erous protection they had so long lived and prospered. 
Besides, not one in ten of those traitors who afterwards 
signed the ordinance of secession, had dared to go before 
the people upon that issue, but only claimed, as a dernier 
resort, the possible, contingent right of revolution. 

That same military despotism that first coerced these peo- 
ple into subraiss'ion to rebel control, is the same military 
despotism that so long maintained them in actual antago- 
nism with the General Government. 

Louisiana, as well as other Southern States, has unfortu- 
nately been forced to occupy a false relationship to the Gen- 
eral Government ; and this false position is due more to the 
villainous administration of James Buchanan than to any 
other cause. Encouraged by his patronage, and fostered 
by his protection, the Eebellion had grown to be a giant be- 
fore President Lincoln came into power. His course had 
been such that a majority of the Southern people, however 
much they might deplore the fact, yet reasonably believed 
the Rebellion a success, and the Confederacy an established 
government. It was natural that they should acquiesce, 
and they did acquiesce; and thus committing themselves, 
threw the whole moral power of a mighty people in the 
scale of treason. 

This much I may be permitted to say in vindication of 
that people, and of those noble Union men of Louisiana, 
many of whom, I regret to say, seem to meet with less favor 
from loyal people of the North than my judgment tells me 
their self-sacrificing devotion to country and to liberty most 
eminently deserves. 

But even were it a fact — which it is not — that the people 
of the rebellious States had formally and deliberately, and 
forever declared themselves separate and independent from 
this Government, yet it by no means follows that we should 
let them go. If we choose to fight, the arbitrament of the 
sword must determine whether they shall enjoy peaceably, 
and as a separate people, the territory purchased by the 
sweat and blood of our fathers, and establish upon the 
American continent a neighboring aristocratical, antagonis- 
tical, slave-holding despotism, carved out of this once proud 
and happy Republic. We should not let them go, because 
we have a constitutional right, and, I imagine, a moral obli- 
gation, to retain them. If so, we have evidently the right 
to use all the means which God and nature have placed in 



our power to force them to obey the laws and submit to the 
authority of the General Government. The Constitution 
necessarily embraces, among the powers conferred by the 
Constitution, full authority to effect that for which the Con- 
stitution was established. But the Constitution gives us no 
authority to consider Louisiana, or any other State, out of 
the Union, neither as a means by which the Constitution 
may be ultimately maintained, and the authority of the Gov- 
ernment restored over all the States, nor according to the 
literal construction of the instrument itself Louisiana is 
not out of the Union. Louisiana cannot, by any possible 
act of hiirs, separate herself from the General Government. 
The General Government cannot, by any act of the General 
Government, place Louisiana beyond the protection of, nor 
dissolve her connection with, the General Government. She 
belongs to, and forms a part of, the Government of the United 
States. For a time the authority of the United States Gov- 
ernment has been successfully resisted by an armed force in 
Louisiana, and her people have been either unable or un- 
willing to send representatives to the United States Con- 
gress. Thus has her own civil government, as well as her 
civil relations with the General Government, been merely 
suspended. She now desires to resume her former legal 
relationship. She has reorganized her State government, 
and adopted a Constitution prohibiting slavery ; and this 
has astonished some of the slavery-loving traitors of the 
North. They cannot imagine how it is possible that Louis- 
iana should adopt such a Constitution. To me, it would 
have been more astonishing had she done otherwise. 

That there has been for years past a numerous class of 
right-minded Southern people, comprising among its num- 
bers many of the ablest and most eminent men of the South, 
who have long felt that slavery was not only a political but 
a social and a moral evil, destructive alike to the best inter- 
ests of the white, as well as the black race, I presume no one 
will question. That this element has been heretofore silenced 
by the necessary terrorism of the accursed institution itself, 
is equally true. This element, only as it was compelled, 
neither advocated nor acquiesced in this rebellion. When- 
ever Federal troops occupied any portion of their territory, 
thus giving assurance that they would be protected, this 
class, so far as they were able, returned to the old flag. I 
do not wish to be understood to say that every man who 



6 

was not a rebel in arms, was at heart an anti-slavery man, 
but I do say it is reasonable to suppose that those who were, 
should be the first to claim the protection of the General 
Government. The success of Federal arms has at length 
redeemed Louisiana from the control of a tyrannical slave- 
holding oligarchy; and, believe as you will, there is greater 
freedom of speech in Louisiana to-day than there ever was 
before. And to-day, as it never had done before this rebel- 
lion began, the American flag protects American citizens 
upon every foot of the American soil over which it floats. 
Under this protection Louisiana has spoken, for the first time 
in her history, fearlessly and untrammeled ; and she has spo- 
ken uncompromisingly for freedom. Her people have 
formed a Constitution, and it is both reasonable and consis- 
tent that this Constitution should forever prohibit an insti- 
tution which to them has been the parent of so dreadful a 
calamity. 

Her relationship, therefore, to the General Government it 
is not difficult to determine. It has not been changed by 
this rebellion. If her people should refuse to exercise the 
privilege of citizens, and perform the necessary duties of 
legislation, the General Government would at least be justi- 
fied in providing for her a government. But such is not the 
case. She has already organized a civil government. 
Governor Hahn, though appointed Provisional Governor 
by President Lincoln, yet now exercises the authority of 
civil Governor by virtue of the power vested in him by a 
majority of the legal voters of the State. She has a State 
Legislature, also legally elected, as well as her representa- 
tives to Congress. Her civil courts are open to the vindi- 
cation of the laws, except in districts where the rebel arms 
have not becM permanently expelled. She has now over 
ten thousand white troops and more than fifteen thousand 
colored soldiers enlisted in the Federal army, and manfully 
battling for the old flag. She is as loyal to-day as any 
State in this Union, and is as much in the Union as any 
other State. I refer particularly to her present population, 
which has so opportunely and so successfully formed a State 
government ; yet were all her disloyal po})ulation today 
within her territory, still would I doubt her loyalty less 
than that of some States now represented in Congress. But 
I believe most firmly, and I say it from a full acquaintance 
with the character and condition of that people, that after 



the military power of the Rebels shall have been destroyed, 
as it certainly will be destroyed, those people will not only 
gladly return to their allegiance, but after being educated 
to know — as under the protection of our flag they will be 
thus educated — that slavery is a disadvantage to them aa 
well as an injustice to the slave, and thus appreciating in 
full force the mighty wrong practiced upon them by the 
slaveholding traitor, a large majority of those now in the 
rebel army will become the most uncompromising Aboli 
tionists. 

It is the loyal people of Louisiana who demand our pro- 
tection and claim our respect, not only for themselves, but 
for the liberal government which they have established. 
Our duty in this respect, it seems to me, is both simple, and 
inevitable. It requires no legislation, no decision, except 
in regard to the qualifications of her members, which can 
alone be decided by each House of Congress. If the com- 
mittees determine these men to have been duly elected, then 
they must be admitted ; for Louisiana certainly has a civil 
government in operation within the Federal lines. She has 
a government, a government of her own construction, every 
department of which has been so carefully organized as not 
to conflict with the Constitution, any law of Congress^ or 
proclamation, or even military order. If hers is not a gov- 
ernment in the Union, then it is a government irrespective 
of the Union, only so far as controlled by the military power 
or arbitrary legislation of the General Government. If thus 
controlled, then she is a conquered province, or, at least, a 
subjugated people. Admit this Delegation, and you deter- 
mine forever the State policy of Louisiana, and throw the 
whole moral power of an entire State, now in the very heart 
of the rebellion, on the side of the Administration and of 
liberty. By doing so you will not only reward the Union 
men of Louisiana, but teach a lesson to our intermeddling 
friends abroad that they will remember forever. 

Perhaps it becomes the dignity of a great and powerful 
nation to be just before it is politic ; but it certainly becomes 
it to be just and politic at the same time ; besides, the admis- 
sion of the Louisiana Delegation will in no way affect the 
status of other States. It requires no reconstruction. There 
■can be no reconstruction so far as the General Genernment is 
concerned. As to Louisiana, whe has merely resxtmed her 
-civil government, and, in doing so, she commenced just 



where she left off, except the military power of the Eebels 
had left the State without a Legislature. Elections had been 
interrupted, and her civil officers had no successors. There 
was, therefore, no authority, except military authority, to 
order an election. And it was only atler the spontaneous 
voice of the people had demanded it, that the order was 
issued, which was merely a declaration that it would aid and 
protect loyal citizens in restoring their civil government. 
Elections were held according to existing State laws, except 
the requirement of certain oaths of loyalty. But similar 
oaths have been required by the General Government in 
States now represented in Congress. The result of the elec- 
tion was a restoration of her civil government under the 
State Constitution of '52— the only Constitution recognized 
by loyal men. After she had thus resumed her State gov- 
ernment, and acting under such Constitution, and her exist- 
ing State laws, she amended her Constitution, proliibiting 
slavery, and elected Delegates to Congress. All that is re- 
quired of Congress, therefore, is to recognize such State gov- 
ernment by admitting her respective Delegates to their right- 
ful seats in Congress. But it is maintained that by adhenng 
to this policy, traitors may become representatives in Con- 
gress. I answer, the laws sufficiently define and punish 
treason : besides, I believe there is less danger to be anti- 
cipated in this respect from the Southern than from the 
Northern States; for there, traitors have committed the 
overt act. 

I believe in maintaining inviolate the Constitution of the 
United States; but, before God, I believe in establishing and 
forever maintaining, and at all hazards, the authority of the f 
United States Government over every foot of American soil. 
I would have a Constitution, but I would have a country,' 
and I would have a government. And though I would let i 
nothing stand in the way of crushing the rebellion, yet, after I 
the rebellion is crushed, I would be just to those who have I 
unfortunately lent to it an unwilling support, if not gener- : 
ous to the suffering and deluded advocates of treason tliem- ,' 
selves. Yet, if the entire population of Louisiana should k 
declai-e freely, and without fear or favor, nevermore wil- 
lingly to submit to the authority of the United States Gov- 
ernment, still would 1 never consent that her people should 
steal from my children the heritage our lathers gave to all. 
So, were 1 a legislator, I would hesitate long before I would 



give my consent to place this Government in so fatally false 
an attitude before the civilized world as to refuse this Dele- 
gation their rightful places on the floors of Congress, thus 
proclaiming to jealous and unfriendly nations that Louis- 
iana, after four years' war, deliberately, under the flag of 
our fathers, declares for separation and slavery, while, on 
the contrary, she has most emphatically declared for free- 
dom and the Union. 

By admitting this Delegation, we silence forever those 
brawling traitors who maintain this is a war of conquest and 
subjugation, as well as that other class of self-styled patriots 
who pretend to imagine owr dijjlculties can best be settled by 
a national convention ! And though it would be far from 
me to advise the recognition of the State government of 
Louisiana for any of these reasons, yet I am free to say that 
I consider the rejection of this Delegation eminently unjust, 
impolitic, and dangerous. 

That the Delegates themselves are in every respect eligi- 
ble to the offices they were elected to fill, is disputed neither 
by the friends nor enemies of the Administration. What, 
then, stands in the way of their admission ? Any procla- 
mation or law of Congress ? They were elected not only 
in accordance with the plan requiring one-tenth of the legal 
voters of the State in 1860, but in accordance with all the 
prescribed forms, and by an overwhelming majority of the 
entire voting population of the State. Therefore, if they 
were eligible themselves, and were elected by qualfied elec- 
tors, which facts can only be decided by the committees on 
elections, (and from the facts before me, I presume it is im- 
possible that the decision should be otherwise,) then they are 
as much entitled to their respective seats in Congress as the 
members elected from any other State. 

But the question may not rest with the committees. Con- 
gress may deem it wise to legislate. Let us, therefore, ex- 
amine this question purely in a policy point of view, and 
discuss the expediency of admitting this Delegation as to its 
effects upon the proposed constitutional amendment prohib- 
iting slavery. Perhaps this is entirely foreign to the sub- 
ject. If so, speculations are harmless. I imagine that every 
well-wisher of his country would rejoice to-day if slavery 
did not exist on the American continent. But how shall 
we destroy it? Has Congress a constitutional right to de- 
clare that slavery shall forever cease in the United States ? 



10 

Who believes it has? The Constitution of Louisiana abol- 
ishes slavery ; yet what is there in the National Constitution 
to prevent the State of Louisiana from so changing her 
Constitution as to again legalize the accursed traffic in hu- 
man flesh ? Illinois can, without infringing upon the 
National Constitution — at least in the opinion of a vast ma- 
jority of the American people — vote slavery into that State, 
simply by changing her State Constitution. So of every 
other State. The only way African slavery can be utterly 
and forever extirpated from the soil of the American Repub- 
lic, is by so amending the National Constitution according 
to the forms prescribed in the Constitution itself. To do 
this requires the acquiescence of three-fourths of all the 
States. Without Louisiana, barely three-fourths of the 
States are represented in the United States Congress, and 
the proposed amendment, therefore, judging from the late 
elections, would be impossible. Admit Louisiana, and such 
States as Kentucky and New Jersey can remain wedded to 
their idols. Liberty can triumph without them. Louisiana 
is true to the Union, and by her recognition the Administra- 
tion partj'- gain one State. Her voice is for universal free- 
dom, and she will vote overwhelmingly, both at home and 
in Congress, for the proposed amendment. This much, at 
least, is well known, both by the public avowals and past 
history of this Delegation, and the questions already decided 
at the ballot-box by the constituency which they represent. 
What is gained, then, in this respect, by admitting this del- 
egation, is to place the ruling power of the State of Louis- 
iana at once on the side of the Administration, the Govern- 
ment and human rights. 

But some wonderfully astute philosopher has discovered 
that the States now represented in Congress can do every- 
thing. Let us suppose they can, does that at all determine 
that they should ? If the Constitution can be amended as 
desired, in a manner which is both constitutional and satis- 
factory to all, thus settling at once and forever a thousand 
complicated questions which would otherwise protract the 
war and embitter the feelings of the two sections, is it not 
better that it should be 50 done than in any other possible 
way? Besides, the recognition of Louisiana, without legis- 
lation, does not necessarily determine the policy to be pur- 
sued ia regard to the other States. 

Those States now represented in the United States Con- 
gress can evidently change the Constitution ; but unless it 



" 11 

receives the sanction of three-fourths of all the States, those 
States not represented must be considered as forming no 
part of this Government, or the Constitution so amended is 
inoperative and void ; or, if otherwise, then it has no effect 
over those States so declared to be out of the Union. Nor 
can it effect them until they return, as States, into the Union. 
But we cannot, by any possible power, bring them back 
into the Union, We may govern them as territories, by 
arbitrary legislation ; but we must not forget that it is not 
in the power of this Government to compel Louisiana, or 
any other State, to form a civil government. Neither to 
vote, hold elections, nor send representatives to Congress. 
We cannot compel the people of Louisiana to act at all. If 
she elects State and National officers, it is by her own vol- 
untary will, and not by compulsion. Send these delegates 
back, and when will Louisiana act again? and when, I ask, 
will she act so wisely and so well? When shall we expect 
a more loyal delegation to rapresent that State, or one which 
reflects more faithfully the long stifled Union sentiment of 
the South ? There does not exist to-day, under the broad 
canopy of heaven, more truly loyal, self-sacrificing, slavery- 
hating, Jeff Davis-hating Union men, than the honorable Sen- 
ators and Eepresentatives elect from the State of Louisiana, 
I know many of them personally and intimately, and I tell 
you the unionism of the noblest of our brave defenders does 
not surpass the self-sacrificing devotion to country, and the 
moral heroism of the Taliaferros, the Wellses, the Montagues, 
and the Fernandez, of Louisiana. We may not do them jus- 
tice, but posterity will; and they will live, despite our acts, as 
green in the memories of our children as the evergreen bay 
trees of their native State. 

If these men are rejected, whither shall they go ? Shall 
they fly to the embraces of Jeff Davis ? He would give a 
reward for their dead bodies. Shall they seek in some foreign 
land the justice denied them in their own? Or shall they 
return to their constituents and say to them, as we say to 
them and to the world, you are slaves ! you have no rights, 
no country, no home, no flag, no government? Do this, 
and if there be a faction among that people opposed to the 
free Republic of America, and friendly to that God-cursed 
institution of African slavery, it will take heart, and possibly 
again become, ere long, the controlling party of the State. 
Do this, and we do that very thing Jeff Davis desires us to 
do. Do this, and we do just what the enemies of free gov- 



eminent throughout the world desire us to do. Do this, and 
we crush the last hope of the friends of liberty in Louisiana. 

In conclusion, permit me to say, that for the public wel- 
fare I sincerely hope, as I believe the loyal people of the 
country generally desire, that the Louisiana Delegation may 
be received. I consider that both wisdom aud justice demand 
it. It will strengthen our cause abroad, and secure to us 
renewed confidence at home. It will form a nucleus around 
which the Union men of the South can safely cluster; and 
once proclaim it that Louisiana has again embraced the Con- 
stitution, and is once more represented in the United States 
Congress, and her weary, deluded and bleeding sons will 
return to their allegiance and their homes. Other States 
will follow her example ; and ere long our glorious old ban- 
ner, "without one stripe erased or star obscured," shall again 
wave triumphant over a mighty people — happy, regenerated, 
reunited, and altogether free ! 

Accept the assurances of my high consideration. 

A. T. STONE. 



X 

to 






M> 






.V 









.A 



~ 0^ 


















^ ,<^' 



■P .^ 









^°^ 









''^--_ * o s o ^ \^ „ V . o 






.0^ 


















A 



=V 













,-r 



■0' 



,0o 



\^ ^^> 



C .V '^ 






v- 















>,v^=°'' "^."^ 




r- V-> .AV' * rfO '<C Al , 






•r. 






V • "-5 ^ o « I ■* ,11 



^^.i:;?;*^.^ 



.•^' 



..P 









■- N - ^ .^"^ 






^^ ,0^ 






^ c.- 









o 






,o- 



.-i^ 



"^^ 


^^^ 






^ % 


<^' 




\. 


' 




^^' 


^/^. 




• "^K. 


y^y 




'^ 






''/ " 


s ** 


■■ .\ 






X 

S''^ 








» ^ 









^ 

















.X^V ^ 









.0 0^ 












'^^ V 

'% . ^ 



V 



». ^ F, » A -^ <!. ., 






.rO 






rO- 






■\ 



■^c.. 






>^ %, 



'C- 



"oo^ 






r^'' 



*0 0^ 



^^. V 






